JPWO2004086395A1 - Data processing device - Google Patents

Abstract

The data processing device transfers the data stream recorded on the recording medium to a device connected to the device. The data stream has attribute information that identifies the format of the data stream. A data processing apparatus communicates with a device to acquire format information for specifying a format that can be processed by the device, a reproducing unit that reads attribute information and a data stream from a recording medium, attribute information and a format Based on the information, a playback control unit that determines whether or not to convert the format of the data stream, and on the basis of the determination, converts the format of the data stream to a format specified by the format information and outputs it, or data A conversion unit that outputs the stream format without conversion. Then, the interface unit transmits the data stream output from the conversion unit to the device.

Description

  The present invention relates to a process for transmitting a data stream related to video and audio between devices.

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, devices capable of recording and reproducing a compression-coded digital data stream related to content such as video and audio on a recording medium such as an optical disk have become popular. Many of such devices record a data stream on a recording medium in accordance with a standard (recording format) established for ensuring reproduction compatibility between devices. Taking a DVD as an example of an optical disk as an example, there are a plurality of standards for recording a data stream on a DVD. Specifically, the DVD video standard (hereinafter referred to as “video standard”) and the DVD video recording standard (hereinafter referred to as “VR standard”). The video standard defines a recording format for package media in which a reproduction-only data stream such as a movie is recorded. The VR standard defines a recording format that records a data stream in real time and enables later editing and the like.
Commercially available recording devices are not necessarily capable of recording data streams corresponding to all existing standards, and the corresponding standards are determined based on criteria such as purpose and price. The recording device cannot normally analyze nor record a data stream of a standard that is not supported.
Assume that two optical disk devices are connected, a data stream is output from one device (transfer source device), and the other device (transfer destination device) records it on a recording medium. This process is a so-called data stream transfer (copy) process. It is assumed that a data stream according to the VR standard is recorded on the optical disc of the transfer source device. Further, it is assumed that the transfer destination device can record a data stream only in accordance with the video standard.
Even if the transfer source apparatus outputs the VR standard data stream as it is to the transfer destination apparatus, the transfer destination apparatus cannot analyze the data stream nor record it on the recording medium. Therefore, the transfer source device converts the VR standard data stream into a video standard data stream and outputs the data stream to the transfer destination device. Thus, the transfer destination apparatus can record the received video standard data stream on the DVD without having to process the data as it is.
However, the above-described conventional processing has a problem that the time required from the start to the end of the transfer becomes long. This is because the transfer source device analyzes all data streams and always reconstructs the data stream so as to conform to the recording format of the transfer destination device. Here, “reconstruction of data stream” refers to a process of decoding a VR standard data stream and then encoding again so as to conform to the video standard data stream. At this time, even if the conventional transfer source device does not actually need to reconstruct the data stream, it analyzes all the data stream while reading it in the same way as during standard reproduction. It took a long time from start to finish.
Further, when the transfer source device supports a plurality of standard moving image streams, the transfer source device needs to determine the standard of the data stream to be transferred, and then determine whether conversion is necessary. . Therefore, more time is required for the transfer process.
An object of the present invention is to quickly determine the standard of a data stream and transfer the data stream between devices at high speed.

A data processing apparatus according to the present invention transfers a data stream recorded on a recording medium to a connected device. The data stream has attribute information specifying the format of the data stream. The data processing apparatus communicates with the device to acquire format information for specifying a format that can be processed by the device, and a reproducing unit that reads the attribute information and the data stream from the recording medium. A playback control unit that determines whether or not to convert the format of the data stream based on the attribute information and the format information; and the format of the data stream is specified by the format information based on the determination A conversion unit that outputs the data stream without converting the format of the data stream. The interface unit transmits the data stream output from the conversion unit to the device.
The data stream may be recorded on the recording medium together with management information to which the attribute information is copied, and the playback unit may read the management information and extract the attribute information.
The reproducing unit may extract the attribute information by reading the data stream.
The reproducing unit may change the reading speed of the data stream according to the determination as to whether to convert the format.
The reproducing unit may read the data stream at a first speed when the format conversion is performed, and may read the data stream at a second speed higher than the first speed when the format conversion is not performed.
A data processing method according to the present invention is executed in a data processing apparatus, and transfers a data stream recorded on a recording medium to a device connected to the data processing apparatus. The data stream has attribute information specifying the format of the data stream. The data processing method communicates with the device to acquire format information specifying a format that can be processed by the device, to read the attribute information and the data stream from the recording medium, Determining whether to convert the format of the data stream based on the attribute information and the format information; and converting the format of the data stream to a format specified by the format information based on the determination. Or outputting the data stream without converting the format and transmitting the data stream to the device.
The data stream may be recorded on the recording medium together with management information to which the attribute information is copied, and the reading step may read the management information and extract the attribute information.
In the reading step, the attribute information may be extracted by reading the data stream.
The reading step may change a reading speed of the data stream in accordance with determination of whether to convert the format.
In the reading step, the data stream may be read at a first speed when the format conversion is performed, and the data stream may be read at a second speed higher than the first speed when the format conversion is not performed.

FIG. 1 (a) shows a camcorder 10 and a DVD recorder 20 connected to transfer a data stream.
FIG. 1B is a diagram showing a combination example of the data stream A and the data stream B according to the embodiment of the present invention and a relationship between relative transfer time lengths for each example.
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a functional block configuration of the data processing apparatus 10 according to the embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the data structures of the moving image file 12 and the management file 14 recorded on the optical disc 131.
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a more detailed data structure of the moving picture stream 11.
FIG. 5A is a diagram illustrating a data structure of the attached information pack 40.
FIG. 5B is a diagram showing a correspondence relationship between the ID of the attribute information 52 and the contents of the attribute data (U_PK_data) 53 described corresponding to the ID.
FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the types of IDs described in the U_PK attribute information box 19 and the types of U_PK storage data corresponding to the types.
FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a transfer processing procedure of the data processing apparatus 10.

In the following, the processing according to the present invention will be described first with reference to FIGS. 1A and 1B, and then the configuration and operation of a data processing apparatus that implements the processing will be described.
FIG. 1 (a) shows a camcorder 10 and a DVD recorder 20 connected to transfer a data stream. In FIG. 1A, a description will be given assuming that the data stream is transferred from the camcorder 10 to the DVD recorder 20.
The camcorder 10 captures video and audio, and records the moving image file of the data stream A on the optical disk 131 loaded therein. As the recording format, one of the DVD-VR standard and the video standard is selected based on a user operation or the like. The data stream A is provided with attribute information for specifying the format of the data stream A at a predetermined position described later.
In addition, the camcorder 10 communicates with the DVD recorder 20 and acquires the format information of the DVD recorder 20. The format information is information for specifying a format that can be processed by the DVD recorder 20. In this specification, it is assumed that the DVD recorder 20 can record a data stream in either the VR standard or the video standard. When the connected DVD recorder 20 is specifically specified, which format is specified. In FIG. 1A, a data stream that can be recorded on the optical disk 134 by the DVD recorder 20 is shown as “data stream B”.
When the camcorder 10 reads the moving image file of the data stream A including the attribute information from the optical disc 131, the camcorder 10 compares the attribute information with the format information and determines whether or not to convert the format of the data stream A. That is, if the data stream A is in a format that can be recorded by the DVD recorder 20, it is determined that format conversion is unnecessary, and if the format is not recordable, it is determined that format conversion is necessary.
When it is determined that format conversion is unnecessary, the data stream A is output as it is as the data stream B without being processed. The DVD recorder 20 receives the data stream B and records it on the optical disc 134 as it is.
On the other hand, when it is determined that format conversion is necessary, the camcorder 10 converts the format of the data stream A into a format specified by the format information and outputs it as the data stream B. The DVD recorder 20 receives the data stream B and records it on the optical disc 134 as it is.
FIG. 1B shows a combination example of the data stream A and the data stream B according to the present embodiment and a relationship between relative transfer time lengths for each example. The a column shows a combination example in which both data streams A and B are VR standards. Further, the column d shows a combination example in which both data streams A and B are video standards. In these two examples, the transfer time of the data stream is shortened. The reason is that since format conversion is not required, the data stream A can be read and output from the optical disk 131 at a playback speed several times to several tens of times faster than the standard playback speed.
On the other hand, columns b and c show examples in which the formats of data streams A and B are different from each other. In these two examples, the transfer time of the data stream is equivalent to that of the prior art due to the time required for conversion and the inability to read the data stream A from the optical disc 131 for conversion (FIG. 1). (In (b), indicated as “standard”).
Next, the configuration of the camcorder 10 will be described. However, the camcorder 10 will be referred to as a “data processing apparatus 10” in order to describe the configuration more generally below. The camcorder described above is an example of the data processing apparatus 10. A device having the function described below is a category of the data processing device of the present invention even if it is a device other than a camcorder.
FIG. 2 shows a functional block configuration of the data processing apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment. The data processing apparatus 10 records a data stream using the optical disk 131 as a recording medium. The optical disk 131 is, for example, a DVD-RAM disk. The optical disk is not a component of the data processing apparatus 10 itself, but is shown in FIG. 1 for convenience of explanation. Other elements described in FIG. 1 constitute a data processing apparatus 10. In this specification, an example in which the recording medium is the optical disk 131 will be described. However, the following description can be similarly applied even when a semiconductor recording medium such as a memory card is used.
The data processing apparatus 10 has three functions, that is, a data stream recording function, a reproduction function, and a transfer function. The recording function is a function in which the data processing apparatus 10 receives a digital signal or an analog signal related to video and / or audio, and records a data stream obtained from the signal on the optical disc 131. The reproduction function is a function in which the data processing apparatus 10 reads out a data stream recorded on the optical disc 131 and reproduces video and / or audio. The transfer function is a function in which the data processing apparatus 10 transfers the data stream recorded on the optical disc 131 to an external device. At the time of transfer, the data processing apparatus 10 determines whether or not stream format conversion is necessary. When format conversion is necessary, the data stream is read out at a standard speed, converted into a format that can be processed by a connected external device, and output when the format conversion is not necessary. Read the data stream at high speed and output it directly to an external device.
The main function of the data processing apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment is a data stream transfer function. In the following, first, the data structure of the data stream recorded on the optical disc 131 will be described while explaining the recording function and the reproducing function, and then the transfer function will be described. The data processing apparatus 10 has the above three functions for convenience of explanation, and the data processing apparatus 10 only needs to have a transfer function described in detail below. Whether or not it has a recording function and a reproduction function is arbitrary.
First, components related to the recording function of the data processing apparatus 10 will be described. The data processing apparatus 10 includes a video signal receiving unit 100, an encoded data generating unit 101, an audio signal receiving unit 102, an input digital interface unit 103, a management file generating unit 106, a recording control unit 115, a continuous data area detecting unit 116, and A logical block management unit 117, a recording unit 119, and an optical pickup 130 are included.
The video signal receiving unit 100 receives a video signal. The video signal is, for example, a still image output from an imaging device (CCD device) of a digital still camera, a digital signal that is not compression-coded with respect to a moving image, or an analog signal such as a TV broadcast wave. The audio signal receiving unit 102 receives an audio signal related to audio. The audio signal is, for example, a signal output from a microphone during moving image shooting. It is described that the video signal receiving unit 100 and the audio signal receiving unit 102 receive the video signal and the audio signal separately, respectively. However, for example, the present invention described below can be applied to a digital broadcast signal in which a video signal and an audio signal are compressed and multiplexed. When receiving a digital broadcast signal or the like, one receiving unit is provided, and processing of the encoded data generating unit 101 described later can be omitted. In this specification, the video signal receiving unit 100 and the audio signal receiving unit 102 will be described as receiving video signals and accompanying audio signals. Both the video signal and the audio signal are analog signals that are not digitally compressed and encoded.
The encoded data generation unit 101 encodes the video signal and the audio signal in a predetermined encoding format (for example, MPEG2-Video format, AC-3 format). The encoded data generation unit 101 can also generate data according to the recording format. For example, encoded video data and audio data are divided into data units corresponding to each recording format, and a header or the like is added to generate video packs and audio packs. Also, an RDI pack is generated when recording according to the VR standard, and a navigation pack is generated when recording according to the video standard. Further, as described later, an attached information pack (U_PK) is generated using the MP4 file format.
An input digital interface unit 103 (hereinafter referred to as “input D-IF unit 103”) is connected to an external device, receives a digital signal from the device, and acquires a digital data file. The “external device” is, for example, a DVD recorder 20 or a PC (personal computer). The input D-IF unit 103 acquires a still image data file for a still image, acquires an MPEG data file for a moving image, and acquires three AC data files for audio. The input D-IF unit 103 is a digital interface typified by an IEEE 1394 interface, a USB (Universal Serial BUS) interface, or the like.
The management file generation unit 106 generates a management file based on the MP4 file format based on the result of the encoding process performed by the encoded data generation unit 101. A management file 14 is shown in FIG. 3 to be described later. In the management file, attribute information for specifying the format of the data stream stored in the moving image file is described.
The recording unit 119 writes the file on the optical disc 131 via the pickup 130. This writing operation is controlled by the recording control unit 115. The continuous data area detection unit 116 checks the use status of sectors managed by the logical block management unit 117 according to an instruction from the recording control unit 115, and detects physically continuous free areas. As a result, the management file is recorded in the management information area 132 to which a certain amount of data is allocated from the inner circumference side of the optical disc 131, and the moving image file is recorded in the AV data area 133 provided on the outer circumference side of the management information area 132. The By arranging the management files centrally on the inner periphery of the disk, it is possible to improve accessibility and speed up reading.
Here, the data structure of a file written by the optical disc 131 will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 3 shows the data structure of the moving image file 12 and the management file 14 recorded on the optical disc 131. The moving image file 12 and the management file 14 shown in FIG. 3 are recorded according to the MP4 file format. The MP4 file format is defined in the MPEG4 system standard (ISO / IEC 14496-1), can handle stream data, and has high compatibility with a PC. In the MP4 file format, moving image streams of various standards such as the VR standard and the video standard can be recorded.
Note that the MP4 file format is defined based on the QuickTime (TM) file format of Apple (registered trademark), and is a future-proof format in that it is supported by various PC applications in recent years. The QuickTime file format based on this is currently widely used as a file format for handling moving images and audio in the field of PC applications.
On the optical disc 131, a moving image file 12 including a moving image stream (P2Stream) 11 and a management file 14 including management information 13 are recorded. The moving image file 12 is written in the AV data area 133 of the optical disk 131, and the management file 14 is written in the management information area 132 of the optical disk 131. In the present specification, the moving image file 12 is also referred to as “Movie Take File”.
The moving image stream 11 is a system stream defined by, for example, the MPEG2 system standard (ISO / IEC 13818-1). In this system stream, three types of program stream (PS), transport stream (TS), and PES stream are defined. However, the MPEG2 system standard does not define a data structure for recording management information (access information, special reproduction information, recording date and time) for these system streams. In the following, it is assumed that the moving image stream 11 is compressed and encoded as an MPEG program stream.
The moving image stream 11 includes a plurality of samples (P2Sample) 15. The sample 15 is configured by mixing video data and audio data. The sample 15 can be determined based on the video playback time, the data size (data amount), and the like. For example, the video playback time of the video object unit (VOBU) of DVD is 0.4. It contains video data from 1 second to 1 second. One or more sets of the samples 15 are referred to as tracks (P2Track) 16.
FIG. 4 shows a more detailed data structure of the moving picture stream 11. Each sample 15 includes one attached information pack (U_PK) 40 at the top, and then a video pack such as a video pack (V_PK) 41 and an audio pack (A_PK) such as an audio pack (A_PK) 42, respectively. Contains more than one. Note that the attached information pack 40 may not be included for each sample.
Each pack is composed of a pack header and a PES packet storing auxiliary information, video, and audio data. The amount of data is all constant (2048 bytes). In the following, the configuration of the attached information pack and the content of information included in the pack will be described.
FIG. 5A shows the data structure of the attached information pack 40. The attached information pack 40 includes a pack header 51, attribute information (U_PK_ID) 52 indicating attributes of the moving picture stream 11, and attribute data (U_PK_data) 53 at the top thereof. The pack header 51 describes information that identifies the pack header 51 among various packs. The attribute information (U_PK_ID) 52 describes information for specifying which recording standard data the sample 15 stores. As shown in FIG. 5A, the attribute information 52 is recorded after the 45th byte from the top in the attached information pack 40, and the conversion unit 121 of the data processing apparatus 10 described later stores the storage position of the attribute information 52. Information can be extracted. On the other hand, the attribute data (U_PK_data) 53 describes information related to the recording standard specified by the attribute information (U_PK_ID) 52, for example, information such as an aspect related to the encoded video stream.
FIG. 5B shows the correspondence between the ID of the attribute information 52 and the contents of the attribute data (U_PK_data) 53 described corresponding to the ID. The attribute information 52 can take values (ID) such as “00”, “60”, and “FF” in hexadecimal notation. Data corresponding to the ID is described as attribute data 53. For example, when the sample 15 includes a VR standard moving image stream, ID “60” is added, and the attached information a regarding the VR standard stream is described as attribute data (U_PK_data) 53. When a video standard moving image stream is included, ID “00” is added, and the attached information b regarding the video standard stream is described as attribute data (U_PK_data) 53. Therefore, according to the value of the attribute information 52, it can be determined which recording standard the sample 15 is based on.
The management information 13 will be described with reference to FIG. 3 again. The management information 13 includes access information for specifying a recording position in units of samples. The access information and the like are described in a sample table box (sample table box) 18 in a movie box (Movie Box) 17 in the management information 13. The sample is managed as a minimum management unit in the sample table box 18 and access information indicating a data storage position is described for each sample. Note that the sample 15 and the track 16 are units of the moving picture stream 11 managed by the management information 13, and the data of the moving picture stream 11 is not always physically separated and defined. In the management information 13, access information for each track 16 can be set. The encoded data generation unit 101 generates a moving image stream (P2stream) 11 so as to conform to the data structure described above.
In the QuickTime file format, a structure called an atom is adopted, which is very similar to the structure called a box described above. By replacing the word “Box” with “Atom”, the description herein for the MP4 file format is also applicable to the QuickTime file format.
On the other hand, the management information 13 includes a U_PK attribute information box (U_PK Information Box) 19. In the U_PK attribute information box 19, the same ID as the ID stored in the U_PK attribute information 52 (FIG. 5A) is copied and stored. Further, the U_PK attribute information box 19 may store the same data as the U_PK data 53 shown in FIG. FIG. 6 shows the type of ID described in the U_PK attribute information box 19 and the type of U_PK storage data corresponding to the type. This is substantially the same as the correspondence between the ID of the attribute information 52 shown in FIG. 5B and the contents of the attribute data (U_PK_data) 53 described corresponding to the ID. Therefore, the description is omitted here. The management file generation unit 106 generates the management information 13 so as to conform to the data structure described above.
Next, referring to FIG. 2 again, components related to the playback function of the data processing apparatus 10 will be described. The data processing apparatus 10 includes a video signal output unit 110, a decoding unit 111, an audio signal output unit 112, a playback unit 113, a playback control unit 114, a management information holding memory 118, and a pickup 130.
The reproducing unit 113 reads out data recorded on the optical disc 131 via the pickup 130 and acquires it as digital data. This reading is performed based on an instruction from the reproduction control unit 114. The reproduction control unit 114 instructs the management information file 14 to be read from the management information area 132 of the optical disc 131 before the reproduction instruction is issued. The management information holding memory 118 holds management information 13 obtained based on the read management file 14. When there is a reproduction instruction, the reproduction control unit 114 specifies the storage position in the AV data area 133 based on the access information in the sample table box 18 of the management information holding memory 118. The pickup 130 and the reproducing unit 113 read the sample 15 whose storage position is specified.
The decoding unit 111 receives compressed and encoded video data and / or audio data, performs a decoding process according to the compression format, and outputs video data and / or audio data. The video signal output unit 110 and the audio signal output unit 112 output the decoded video signal and / or audio signal to a television, a speaker, and the like, respectively.
Next, components related to the data stream transfer function of the data processing apparatus 10 will be described. Regarding the transfer function, the data processing apparatus 10 includes a conversion unit 121 and an output digital interface unit 122.
The conversion unit 121 operates based on the determination of the reproduction control unit 114 regarding whether or not to convert a format to be described later. If it is determined not to convert the format, the conversion unit 121 outputs the moving image stream 11 without conversion. On the other hand, when it is determined to convert the format, the conversion unit 121 converts the recording format of the moving picture stream 11 recorded in the AV data area 133 of the optical disc 131 into the recording format specified by the reproduction control unit 114. For example, when the management file is recorded in the MP4 file format in a state where the video stream 11 has a data structure compliant with the VR standard, the conversion unit 121 once decodes the video stream 11 and then converts it to the video standard. The data is compressed and encoded again so as to conform to the compliant format. In some cases, the management file is converted from the MP4 file format so as to conform to the video standard. This indicates that the management file is also converted when the file structure of the management file is different.
Furthermore, other conversion processes can be performed. Each moving picture stream of the VR standard and the video standard includes a plurality of video objects (VOB), and each VOB is composed of a plurality of video object units (VOBU). The VOBU corresponds to the sample (P2sample) 15 in FIG. Each VOBU includes a video pack and an audio pack for storing video data and audio data. Therefore, the conversion unit 121 uses each VR standard pack as it is as a video standard pack.
On the other hand, the conversion unit 121 converts a real-time information pack (RDI pack) arranged at the head of a VR standard VOBU into a video standard navigation pack (navigation pack). Each is information for controlling the reproduction of video data and audio data in a moving image stream, and has a data structure defined in each standard. Also, the conversion unit 121 converts each video pack and audio pack that appears first in each VOBU at the beginning of the VR standard into a video pack and an audio pack that do not have a PES extension field. However, each video pack and audio pack appearing at the beginning of the VOB is left without being converted. At the time of conversion, the PES extension field may be deleted to adjust the data length to a fixed pack length (2048 bytes). The PES extension field describes information necessary for decoding the program stream, for example, the capacity of the decoding data buffer. According to the above-described processing, it is not necessary to decode and recompress and encode all video data and audio data, so that the processing can be speeded up and quality degradation can be suppressed.
Next, the output digital interface unit 122 (hereinafter referred to as “output D-IF unit 122”) receives the moving image stream, and outputs the moving image stream in accordance with, for example, a communication protocol in accordance with the IEEE 1394 standard. In FIG. 2, the output D-IF unit 122 and the input D-IF unit 103 are described separately, but this is for convenience of explanation and can be integrated into one. . For example, in the case of the IEEE1394 interface, data input and output are realized by a single connector.
In order to transfer the data stream, it is necessary to read the data stream from the optical disc 131. In order to read the data stream, the playback unit 113, the playback control unit 114, the management information holding memory 118, and the pickup 130 are required as in playback. The operations of these components are generally as described in relation to the playback function of the previous data processing apparatus 10, but the different operations will be described below with reference to FIG. It explains together.
FIG. 7 shows the procedure of the transfer process of the data processing apparatus 10. First, prior to the start of processing, a user connects an output digital interface unit 122 (described later) of the data processing apparatus 10 and an input terminal of the DVD recorder 20 with an IEEE 1394 standard cable or the like, and a data stream is connected to the DVD recorder 20. An instruction to transfer to is input via a remote controller (not shown) or the like of the data processing apparatus 10. Then, in step S <b> 71, the playback control unit 114 of the data processing apparatus 10 receives a transfer instruction for the moving image stream 11. When receiving the instruction, in the next step S72, the reproduction control unit 114 acquires the U_PK attribute information 19 stored in the management information holding memory 118, and specifies the format of the moving picture stream 11. Here, the moving image stream 11 is in the VR standard format.
Next, in step S73, an inquiry is made from the output D-IF unit 122 to the DVD recorder 20, which is a transfer destination device, and the input D-IF unit 103 can record and / or reproduce in the DVD recorder 20. Get format information (format information). The format information is sent to the playback control unit 114.
For example, the data processing apparatus 10 may acquire the format information from the DVD recorder 20 by a communication protocol of the IEEE 1394 standard. Alternatively, the data processing apparatus 10 may specify the format information of the DVD recorder 20 using an HDMI standard communication protocol or the like. Specifically, the data processing apparatus 10 transmits a control command to the DVD recorder 20 in accordance with the HDMI standard for obtaining device-specific information for specifying a manufacturer name, a model number, and the like, and the DVD recorder 20 also has a device in accordance with the HDMI standard. Receive unique information. Then, the playback control unit 114 refers to a table defined in the internal memory of the data processing apparatus 10 or an external memory card (not shown). The table describes the correspondence between the device specific information and the format information of the device. The playback control unit 114 can specify format information that can be processed by the DVD recorder 20 based on the information. Note that the playback control unit 114 may acquire the format name input by the user via the remote controller as the format information.
Next, in step S74, the playback control unit 114 determines whether the U_PK attribute information 19 matches the format information. In this specification, the U_PK attribute information 19 indicates that it is a VR standard format. Therefore, when the format information indicates the VR standard format, the playback control unit 114 determines that there is no need for conversion, and proceeds to step S75. On the other hand, if the format information indicates a format other than the VR standard format (for example, video standard format), the playback control unit 114 determines that conversion is necessary, and proceeds to step S76.
In step S75, the data processing apparatus 10 rotates the optical disc 131 at a speed several to several tens of times higher than the playback speed during normal playback, and is several times faster than the read speed during standard playback via the pickup 130 and the playback unit 113. The moving image stream 11 is read out at a speed that is twice to several tens of times faster. The reason why such a process is possible is that the conversion unit 121 to which the moving image stream 11 is transmitted does not have to perform the stream conversion process, so there is no need to wait for the end of the process of the conversion unit 121. With respect to the read moving image stream 11, the conversion unit 121 sends the moving image stream 11 to the output D-IF unit 122 as it is, and the output D-IF unit 122 also transfers it to the DVD recorder 20 as it is. When the transfer ends, the process ends.
On the other hand, in step S76, the pickup 130 and the reproduction unit 113 read a moving picture stream from the optical disc 131 at a standard speed, and the conversion unit 121 converts the format based on the format information of the DVD recorder 20 that is a transfer destination device. Furthermore, in step S77, the conversion unit 121 changes the U_PK attribute information (U_PK_ID) 52 and the U_PK data (U_PK_data) 53 in the attached information pack (U_PK) 40 in accordance with the format of the converted video stream. Thereafter, in step S78, the output D-IF unit 122 transfers the converted video stream to the DVD recorder 20. Since the DVD recorder 20 can receive the converted video stream and record it on the recording medium 134 as it is, the DVD recorder 20 is not subjected to processing load for conversion, and the hardware resource is used for other processing. Can be used effectively.
The embodiments of the present invention have been described above. In the above description, a DVD-RAM disk is given as an example of the optical disk 131. However, there are various standards for optical discs, and other than DVD-RAM discs, MO, DVD-R, DVD-RW, + RW, CD-R, CD-RW, and the like may be used. Further, in place of the optical disk 131, a removable recording medium other than the optical disk, for example, a semiconductor memory card can be used, or a hard disk, a semiconductor memory, or the like that is a part of the components of the data processing apparatus 10 can be used. it can.
In this embodiment, the MP4 file format is taken as an example, and the U_PK attribute information 19 is stored in one box (U_PK Information Box) in a movie box that is a box (BOX) structure. However, the box structure is not an essential requirement of the present invention, and any data structure may be adopted as long as the U_PK attribute information is stored in the management information so that it can be specified.
In the description of the MP4 file format, the moving image file 12 and the management file 14 are described as being recorded on the optical disc 131 as separate files. However, this is not an essential requirement for the present invention. For example, only the moving image file 12 may be recorded alone. When transferring the moving picture stream described above, the playback control unit 114 may directly read the U_PK attribute information 52 from the attached information pack 50 of the moving picture stream 11 stored as the moving picture file 12 and specify the format of the moving picture stream 11.
When one of the format information related to the above-described DVD recorder 20 and the attribute information specifying the format of the data stream is fixed, for example, the data processing apparatus 10 only performs processing of one specific format. When it is known in advance that only the device to be enabled is connected, or when the format of the data stream is determined in advance and the attribute information is fixed, the playback control unit will at least one of the attribute information and the format information. Based on the above, it may be determined whether or not to convert the format of the data stream.
The transfer function of the data processing device is realized based on a computer program that defines the processing procedure shown in FIG. The computer of the data processing apparatus operates each component of the data processing apparatus by executing such a computer program, thereby realizing the above-described processing. The computer program is recorded on a recording medium such as a CD-ROM and distributed on the market, or transmitted through an electric communication line such as the Internet. Thereby, even in a computer system, transfer processing having the same function as that of the above-described data processing device can be realized.

  According to the present invention, when transferring a data stream, it is determined whether or not the data stream is in a format that can be processed by the transfer destination device. If not, convert to a format that can be processed and transfer. When transferring without processing, since there is no restriction on the data stream reading speed, the data stream can be read from the recording medium at high speed and transferred. Since the transfer destination device has only to record the received data stream as it is, the processing load caused by the conversion processing on the device side can be reduced.

  The present invention relates to a process for transmitting a data stream related to video and audio between devices.

  2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, devices capable of recording and reproducing a compression-coded digital data stream related to content such as video and audio on a recording medium such as an optical disk have become widespread. Many of such devices record a data stream on a recording medium in accordance with a standard (recording format) established for ensuring reproduction compatibility between devices. Taking a DVD as an example of an optical disk as an example, there are a plurality of standards for recording a data stream on a DVD. Specifically, the DVD video standard (hereinafter referred to as “video standard”) and the DVD video recording standard (hereinafter referred to as “VR standard”). The video standard defines a recording format for package media in which a reproduction-only data stream such as a movie is recorded. The VR standard defines a recording format that records a data stream in real time and enables later editing and the like.

  Commercially available recording devices are not necessarily capable of recording data streams corresponding to all existing standards, and the corresponding standards are determined based on criteria such as purpose and price. The recording device cannot normally analyze nor record a data stream of a standard that is not supported.

  Assume that two optical disk devices are connected, a data stream is output from one device (transfer source device), and the other device (transfer destination device) records it on a recording medium. This process is a so-called data stream transfer (copy) process. It is assumed that a data stream according to the VR standard is recorded on the optical disc of the transfer source device. Further, it is assumed that the transfer destination device can record a data stream only in accordance with the video standard.

  Even if the transfer source apparatus outputs the VR standard data stream as it is to the transfer destination apparatus, the transfer destination apparatus cannot analyze the data stream nor record it on the recording medium. Therefore, the transfer source device converts the VR standard data stream into a video standard data stream and outputs the data stream to the transfer destination device. Thus, the transfer destination apparatus can record the received video standard data stream on the DVD without having to process the data as it is.

  However, the above-described conventional processing has a problem that the time required from the start to the end of the transfer becomes long. This is because the transfer source device analyzes all data streams and always reconstructs the data stream so as to conform to the recording format of the transfer destination device. Here, “reconstruction of data stream” refers to a process of decoding a VR standard data stream and then encoding again so as to conform to the video standard data stream. At this time, even if the conventional transfer source device does not actually need to reconstruct the data stream, it analyzes all the data stream while reading it in the same way as during standard reproduction. It took a long time from start to finish.

  Further, when the transfer source device supports a plurality of standard moving image streams, the transfer source device needs to determine the standard of the data stream to be transferred, and then determine whether conversion is necessary. . Therefore, more time is required for the transfer process.

  An object of the present invention is to quickly determine the standard of a data stream and transfer the data stream between devices at high speed.

  A data processing apparatus according to the present invention transfers a data stream recorded on a recording medium to a connected device. The data stream has attribute information specifying the format of the data stream. The data processing apparatus communicates with the device to acquire format information for specifying a format that can be processed by the device, and a reproducing unit that reads the attribute information and the data stream from the recording medium. A playback control unit that determines whether or not to convert the format of the data stream based on the attribute information and the format information; and the format of the data stream is specified by the format information based on the determination A conversion unit that outputs the data stream without converting the format of the data stream. The interface unit transmits the data stream output from the conversion unit to the device.

  The data stream may be recorded on the recording medium together with management information to which the attribute information is copied, and the playback unit may read the management information and extract the attribute information.

  The reproducing unit may extract the attribute information by reading the data stream.

  The reproducing unit may change the reading speed of the data stream according to the determination as to whether to convert the format.

  The reproducing unit may read the data stream at a first speed when the format conversion is performed, and may read the data stream at a second speed higher than the first speed when the format conversion is not performed.

  A data processing method according to the present invention is executed in a data processing apparatus, and transfers a data stream recorded on a recording medium to a device connected to the data processing apparatus. The data stream has attribute information specifying the format of the data stream. The data processing method communicates with the device to acquire format information specifying a format that can be processed by the device, to read the attribute information and the data stream from the recording medium, Determining whether to convert the format of the data stream based on the attribute information and the format information; and converting the format of the data stream to a format specified by the format information based on the determination. Or outputting the data stream without converting the format and transmitting the data stream to the device.

  The data stream may be recorded on the recording medium together with management information to which the attribute information is copied, and the reading step may read the management information and extract the attribute information.

  In the reading step, the attribute information may be extracted by reading the data stream.

  The reading step may change a reading speed of the data stream in accordance with determination of whether to convert the format.

  In the reading step, the data stream may be read at a first speed when the format conversion is performed, and the data stream may be read at a second speed higher than the first speed when the format conversion is not performed.

  According to the present invention, when transferring a data stream, it is determined whether or not the data stream is in a format that can be processed by the transfer destination device. If not, convert to a format that can be processed and transfer. When transferring without processing, since there is no restriction on the data stream reading speed, the data stream can be read from the recording medium at high speed and transferred. Since the transfer destination device has only to record the received data stream as it is, the processing load caused by the conversion processing on the device side can be reduced.

  In the following, the processing according to the present invention will be described first with reference to FIGS. 1A and 1B, and then the configuration and operation of a data processing apparatus that implements the processing will be described.

  FIG. 1 (a) shows a camcorder 10 and a DVD recorder 20 connected to transfer a data stream. In FIG. 1A, a description will be given assuming that the data stream is transferred from the camcorder 10 to the DVD recorder 20.

  The camcorder 10 captures video and audio, and records the moving image file of the data stream A on the optical disk 131 loaded therein. As the recording format, one of the DVD-VR standard and the video standard is selected based on a user operation or the like. The data stream A is provided with attribute information for specifying the format of the data stream A at a predetermined position described later.

  In addition, the camcorder 10 communicates with the DVD recorder 20 and acquires the format information of the DVD recorder 20. The format information is information for specifying a format that can be processed by the DVD recorder 20. In this specification, it is assumed that the DVD recorder 20 can record a data stream in either the VR standard or the video standard. When the connected DVD recorder 20 is specifically specified, which format is specified. In FIG. 1A, a data stream that can be recorded on the optical disk 134 by the DVD recorder 20 is shown as “data stream B”.

  When the camcorder 10 reads the moving image file of the data stream A including the attribute information from the optical disc 131, the camcorder 10 compares the attribute information with the format information and determines whether or not to convert the format of the data stream A. That is, if the data stream A is in a format that can be recorded by the DVD recorder 20, it is determined that format conversion is unnecessary, and if the format is not recordable, it is determined that format conversion is necessary.

  When it is determined that format conversion is unnecessary, the data stream A is output as it is as the data stream B without being processed. The DVD recorder 20 receives the data stream B and records it on the optical disc 134 as it is.

  On the other hand, when it is determined that format conversion is necessary, the camcorder 10 converts the format of the data stream A into a format specified by the format information and outputs it as the data stream B. The DVD recorder 20 receives the data stream B and records it on the optical disc 134 as it is.

  FIG. 1B shows a combination example of the data stream A and the data stream B according to the present embodiment and a relationship between relative transfer time lengths for each example. The a column shows a combination example in which both data streams A and B are VR standards. Further, the column d shows a combination example in which both data streams A and B are video standards. In these two examples, the transfer time of the data stream is shortened. The reason is that since format conversion is not required, the data stream A can be read and output from the optical disk 131 at a playback speed several times to several tens of times faster than the standard playback speed.

  On the other hand, columns b and c show examples in which the formats of data streams A and B are different from each other. In these two examples, the transfer time of the data stream is equivalent to that of the prior art due to the time required for conversion and the inability to read the data stream A from the optical disc 131 for conversion (FIG. 1). (In (b), indicated as “standard”).

  Next, the configuration of the camcorder 10 will be described. However, the camcorder 10 will be referred to as a “data processing apparatus 10” in order to describe the configuration more generally below. The camcorder described above is an example of the data processing apparatus 10. A device having the function described below is a category of the data processing device of the present invention even if it is a device other than a camcorder.

  FIG. 2 shows a functional block configuration of the data processing apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment. The data processing apparatus 10 records a data stream using the optical disk 131 as a recording medium. The optical disk 131 is, for example, a DVD-RAM disk. The optical disk is not a component of the data processing apparatus 10 itself, but is shown in FIG. 1 for convenience of explanation. Other elements described in FIG. 1 constitute a data processing apparatus 10. In this specification, an example in which the recording medium is the optical disk 131 will be described. However, the following description can be similarly applied even when a semiconductor recording medium such as a memory card is used.

  The data processing apparatus 10 has three functions, that is, a data stream recording function, a reproduction function, and a transfer function. The recording function is a function in which the data processing apparatus 10 receives a digital signal or an analog signal related to video and / or audio, and records a data stream obtained from the signal on the optical disc 131. The reproduction function is a function in which the data processing apparatus 10 reads out a data stream recorded on the optical disc 131 and reproduces video and / or audio. The transfer function is a function in which the data processing apparatus 10 transfers the data stream recorded on the optical disc 131 to an external device. At the time of transfer, the data processing apparatus 10 determines whether or not stream format conversion is necessary. When format conversion is necessary, the data stream is read out at a standard speed, converted into a format that can be processed by a connected external device, and output when the format conversion is not necessary. Read the data stream at high speed and output it directly to an external device.

  The main function of the data processing apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment is a data stream transfer function. In the following, first, the data structure of the data stream recorded on the optical disc 131 will be described while explaining the recording function and the reproducing function, and then the transfer function will be described. The data processing apparatus 10 has the above three functions for convenience of explanation, and the data processing apparatus 10 only needs to have a transfer function described in detail below. Whether or not it has a recording function and a reproduction function is arbitrary.

  First, components related to the recording function of the data processing apparatus 10 will be described. The data processing apparatus 10 includes a video signal receiving unit 100, an encoded data generating unit 101, an audio signal receiving unit 102, an input digital interface unit 103, a management file generating unit 106, a recording control unit 115, a continuous data area detecting unit 116, and A logical block management unit 117, a recording unit 119, and an optical pickup 130 are included.

  The video signal receiving unit 100 receives a video signal. The video signal is, for example, a still image output from an imaging device (CCD device) of a digital still camera, a digital signal that is not compression-coded with respect to a moving image, or an analog signal such as a TV broadcast wave. The audio signal receiving unit 102 receives an audio signal related to audio. The audio signal is, for example, a signal output from a microphone during moving image shooting. It is described that the video signal receiving unit 100 and the audio signal receiving unit 102 receive the video signal and the audio signal separately, respectively. However, for example, the present invention described below can be applied to a digital broadcast signal in which a video signal and an audio signal are compressed and multiplexed. When receiving a digital broadcast signal or the like, one receiving unit is provided, and processing of the encoded data generating unit 101 described later can be omitted. In this specification, the video signal receiving unit 100 and the audio signal receiving unit 102 will be described as receiving video signals and accompanying audio signals. Both the video signal and the audio signal are analog signals that are not digitally compressed and encoded.

  The encoded data generation unit 101 encodes the video signal and the audio signal in a predetermined encoding format (for example, MPEG2-Video format, AC-3 format). The encoded data generation unit 101 can also generate data according to the recording format. For example, encoded video data and audio data are divided into data units corresponding to each recording format, and a header or the like is added to generate video packs and audio packs. Also, an RDI pack is generated when recording according to the VR standard, and a navigation pack is generated when recording according to the video standard. Further, as described later, an attached information pack (U_PK) is generated using the MP4 file format.

  An input digital interface unit 103 (hereinafter referred to as “input D-IF unit 103”) is connected to an external device, receives a digital signal from the device, and acquires a digital data file. The “external device” is, for example, a DVD recorder 20 or a PC (personal computer). The input D-IF unit 103 acquires a still image data file for a still image, acquires an MPEG data file for a moving image, and acquires three AC data files for audio. The input D-IF unit 103 is a digital interface represented by an IEEE 1394 interface, a USB (Universal Serial BUS) interface, or the like.

  The management file generation unit 106 generates a management file based on the MP4 file format based on the result of the encoding process performed by the encoded data generation unit 101. A management file 14 is shown in FIG. 3 to be described later. In the management file, attribute information for specifying the format of the data stream stored in the moving image file is described.

  The recording unit 119 writes the file on the optical disc 131 via the pickup 130. This writing operation is controlled by the recording control unit 115. The continuous data area detection unit 116 checks the use status of sectors managed by the logical block management unit 117 according to an instruction from the recording control unit 115, and detects physically continuous free areas. As a result, the management file is recorded in the management information area 132 to which a certain amount of data is allocated from the inner circumference side of the optical disc 131, and the moving image file is recorded in the AV data area 133 provided on the outer circumference side of the management information area 132. The By arranging the management files centrally on the inner periphery of the disk, it is possible to improve accessibility and speed up reading.

  Here, the data structure of a file written by the optical disc 131 will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 3 shows the data structure of the moving image file 12 and the management file 14 recorded on the optical disc 131. The moving image file 12 and the management file 14 shown in FIG. 3 are recorded according to the MP4 file format. The MP4 file format is defined in the MPEG4 system standard (ISO / IEC 14496-1), can handle stream data, and has high compatibility with a PC. In the MP4 file format, moving image streams of various standards such as the VR standard and the video standard can be recorded.

  Note that the MP4 file format is defined based on the QuickTime (TM) file format of Apple (registered trademark), and is a future-proof format in that it is supported by various PC applications in recent years. The based QuickTime file format is now widely used as a file format for handling video and audio in the field of PC applications.

  On the optical disc 131, a moving image file 12 including a moving image stream (P2Stream) 11 and a management file 14 including management information 13 are recorded. The moving image file 12 is written in the AV data area 133 of the optical disk 131, and the management file 14 is written in the management information area 132 of the optical disk 131. In the present specification, the moving image file 12 is also referred to as “Movie Take File”.

  The moving image stream 11 is a system stream defined by, for example, the MPEG2 system standard (ISO / IEC 13818-1). In this system stream, three types of program stream (PS), transport stream (TS), and PES stream are defined. However, the MPEG2 system standard does not define a data structure for recording management information (access information, special reproduction information, recording date and time) for these system streams. In the following, it is assumed that the moving image stream 11 is compressed and encoded as an MPEG program stream.

  The moving image stream 11 includes a plurality of samples (P2Sample) 15. The sample 15 is configured by mixing video data and audio data. The sample 15 can be determined based on the video playback time, the data size (data amount), and the like. For example, the video playback time of the video object unit (VOBU) of DVD is 0.4. It contains video data from 1 second to 1 second. One or more sets of the samples 15 are referred to as tracks (P2Track) 16.

  FIG. 4 shows a more detailed data structure of the moving picture stream 11. Each sample 15 includes one attached information pack (U_PK) 40 at the top, and then a video pack such as a video pack (V_PK) 41 and an audio pack (A_PK) such as an audio pack (A_PK) 42, respectively. Contains more than one. Note that the attached information pack 40 may not be included for each sample.

  Each pack is composed of a pack header and a PES packet storing auxiliary information, video, and audio data. The amount of data is all constant (2048 bytes). In the following, the configuration of the attached information pack and the content of information included in the pack will be described.

  FIG. 5A shows the data structure of the attached information pack 40. The attached information pack 40 includes a pack header 51, attribute information (U_PK_ID) 52 indicating attributes of the moving picture stream 11, and attribute data (U_PK_data) 53 at the top thereof. The pack header 51 describes information that identifies the pack header 51 among various packs. The attribute information (U_PK_ID) 52 describes information for specifying which recording standard data the sample 15 stores. As shown in FIG. 5A, the attribute information 52 is recorded after the 45th byte from the top in the attached information pack 40, and the conversion unit 121 of the data processing apparatus 10 described later stores the storage position of the attribute information 52. Information can be extracted. On the other hand, the attribute data (U_PK_data) 53 describes information related to the recording standard specified by the attribute information (U_PK_ID) 52, for example, information such as an aspect related to the encoded video stream.

  FIG. 5B shows the correspondence between the ID of the attribute information 52 and the contents of the attribute data (U_PK_data) 53 described corresponding to the ID. The attribute information 52 can take values (ID) such as “00”, “60”, and “FF” in hexadecimal notation. Data corresponding to the ID is described as attribute data 53. For example, when the sample 15 includes a VR standard moving image stream, ID “60” is added, and the attached information a regarding the VR standard stream is described as attribute data (U_PK_data) 53. When a video standard moving image stream is included, ID “00” is added, and the attached information b regarding the video standard stream is described as attribute data (U_PK_data) 53. Therefore, according to the value of the attribute information 52, it can be determined which recording standard the sample 15 is based on.

  The management information 13 will be described with reference to FIG. 3 again. The management information 13 includes access information for specifying a recording position in units of samples. Access information and the like are described in a sample table box 18 in a movie box 17 in the management information 13. Samples are managed as a minimum management unit in a sample table box 18 and access information indicating a data storage position is described for each sample. Note that the sample 15 and the track 16 are units of the moving picture stream 11 managed by the management information 13, and the data of the moving picture stream 11 is not always physically separated and defined. In the management information 13, access information for each track 16 can be set. The encoded data generation unit 101 generates a moving image stream (P2stream) 11 so as to conform to the data structure described above.

  The QuickTime file format employs a structure called Atom, which is very similar to the structure called Box described above. By replacing the word “Box” with “Atom”, the description herein regarding the MP4 file format is also applicable to the QuickTime file format.

  On the other hand, the management information 13 includes a U_PK attribute information box 19. In the U_PK attribute information box 19, the same ID as the ID stored in the U_PK attribute information 52 (FIG. 5A) is copied and stored. Further, the U_PK attribute information box 19 may store the same data as the U_PK data 53 shown in FIG. FIG. 6 shows the type of ID described in the U_PK attribute information box 19 and the type of U_PK storage data corresponding to the type. This is substantially the same as the correspondence between the ID of the attribute information 52 shown in FIG. 5B and the contents of the attribute data (U_PK_data) 53 described corresponding to the ID. Therefore, the description is omitted here. The management file generation unit 106 generates the management information 13 so as to conform to the data structure described above.

  Next, referring to FIG. 2 again, components related to the playback function of the data processing apparatus 10 will be described. The data processing apparatus 10 includes a video signal output unit 110, a decoding unit 111, an audio signal output unit 112, a playback unit 113, a playback control unit 114, a management information holding memory 118, and a pickup 130.

  The reproducing unit 113 reads out data recorded on the optical disc 131 via the pickup 130 and acquires it as digital data. This reading is performed based on an instruction from the reproduction control unit 114. The reproduction control unit 114 instructs the management information file 14 to be read from the management information area 132 of the optical disc 131 before the reproduction instruction is issued. The management information holding memory 118 holds management information 13 obtained based on the read management file 14. When there is a reproduction instruction, the reproduction control unit 114 specifies the storage position in the AV data area 133 based on the access information in the sample table box 18 of the management information holding memory 118. The pickup 130 and the reproducing unit 113 read the sample 15 whose storage position is specified.

  The decoding unit 111 receives compressed and encoded video data and / or audio data, performs a decoding process according to the compression format, and outputs video data and / or audio data. The video signal output unit 110 and the audio signal output unit 112 output the decoded video signal and / or audio signal to a television, a speaker, and the like, respectively.

  Next, components related to the data stream transfer function of the data processing apparatus 10 will be described. Regarding the transfer function, the data processing apparatus 10 includes a conversion unit 121 and an output digital interface unit 122.

  The conversion unit 121 operates based on the determination of the reproduction control unit 114 regarding whether or not to convert a format to be described later. If it is determined not to convert the format, the conversion unit 121 outputs the moving image stream 11 without conversion. On the other hand, when it is determined to convert the format, the conversion unit 121 converts the recording format of the moving picture stream 11 recorded in the AV data area 133 of the optical disc 131 into the recording format specified by the reproduction control unit 114. For example, when the management file is recorded in the MP4 file format in a state where the video stream 11 has a data structure compliant with the VR standard, the conversion unit 121 once decodes the video stream 11 and then converts it to the video standard. The data is compressed and encoded again so as to conform to the compliant format. In some cases, the management file is converted from the MP4 file format so as to conform to the video standard. This indicates that the management file is also converted when the file structure of the management file is different.

  Furthermore, other conversion processes can be performed. Each moving picture stream of the VR standard and the video standard includes a plurality of video objects (VOB), and each VOB is composed of a plurality of video object units (VOBU). The VOBU corresponds to the sample (P2sample) 15 in FIG. Each VOBU includes a video pack and an audio pack for storing video data and audio data. Therefore, the conversion unit 121 uses each VR standard pack as it is as a video standard pack.

  On the other hand, the conversion unit 121 converts a real-time information pack (RDI pack) arranged at the head of a VR standard VOBU into a video standard navigation pack (navigation pack). Each is information for controlling the reproduction of video data and audio data in a moving image stream, and has a data structure defined in each standard. Also, the conversion unit 121 converts each video pack and audio pack that appears first in each VOBU at the beginning of the VR standard into a video pack and an audio pack that do not have a PES extension field. However, each video pack and audio pack appearing at the beginning of the VOB is left without being converted. At the time of conversion, the PES extension field may be deleted to adjust the data length to a fixed pack length (2048 bytes). The PES extension field describes information necessary for decoding the program stream, for example, the capacity of the decoding data buffer. According to the above-described processing, it is not necessary to decode and recompress and encode all video data and audio data, so that the processing can be speeded up and quality degradation can be suppressed.

  Next, the output digital interface unit 122 (hereinafter referred to as “output D-IF unit 122”) receives the moving image stream, and outputs the moving image stream in accordance with, for example, a communication protocol in accordance with the IEEE 1394 standard. In FIG. 2, the output D-IF unit 122 and the input D-IF unit 103 are described separately, but this is for convenience of explanation and can be integrated into one. . For example, in the case of the IEEE1394 interface, data input and output are realized by a single connector.

  In order to transfer the data stream, it is necessary to read the data stream from the optical disc 131. In order to read the data stream, the playback unit 113, the playback control unit 114, the management information holding memory 118, and the pickup 130 are required as in playback. The operations of these components are generally as described in relation to the playback function of the previous data processing apparatus 10, but the different operations will be described below with reference to FIG. It explains together.

  FIG. 7 shows the procedure of the transfer process of the data processing apparatus 10. First, prior to the start of processing, a user connects an output digital interface unit 122 (described later) of the data processing apparatus 10 and an input terminal of the DVD recorder 20 with an IEEE 1394 standard cable or the like, and a data stream is connected to the DVD recorder 20. An instruction to transfer to is input via a remote controller (not shown) or the like of the data processing apparatus 10. Then, in step S <b> 71, the playback control unit 114 of the data processing apparatus 10 receives a transfer instruction for the moving image stream 11. When receiving the instruction, in the next step S72, the reproduction control unit 114 acquires the U_PK attribute information 19 stored in the management information holding memory 118, and specifies the format of the moving picture stream 11. Here, the moving image stream 11 is in the VR standard format.

  Next, in step S73, an inquiry is made from the output D-IF unit 122 to the DVD recorder 20, which is a transfer destination device, and the input D-IF unit 103 can record and / or reproduce in the DVD recorder 20. Get format information (format information). The format information is sent to the playback control unit 114.

  For example, the data processing apparatus 10 may acquire the format information from the DVD recorder 20 by a communication protocol of the IEEE 1394 standard. Alternatively, the data processing apparatus 10 may specify the format information of the DVD recorder 20 using an HDMI standard communication protocol or the like. Specifically, the data processing apparatus 10 transmits a control command to the DVD recorder 20 in accordance with the HDMI standard for obtaining device-specific information for specifying a manufacturer name, a model number, and the like, and the DVD recorder 20 also has a device in accordance with the HDMI standard. Receive unique information. Then, the playback control unit 114 refers to a table defined in the internal memory of the data processing apparatus 10 or an external memory card (not shown). The table describes the correspondence between the device specific information and the format information of the device. The playback control unit 114 can specify format information that can be processed by the DVD recorder 20 based on the information. Note that the playback control unit 114 may acquire the format name input by the user via the remote controller as the format information.

  Next, in step S74, the playback control unit 114 determines whether the U_PK attribute information 19 matches the format information. In this specification, the U_PK attribute information 19 indicates that it is a VR standard format. Therefore, when the format information indicates the VR standard format, the playback control unit 114 determines that there is no need for conversion, and proceeds to step S75. On the other hand, if the format information indicates a format other than the VR standard format (for example, video standard format), the playback control unit 114 determines that conversion is necessary, and proceeds to step S76.

  In step S75, the data processing apparatus 10 rotates the optical disc 131 at a speed several to several tens of times higher than the playback speed during normal playback, and is several times faster than the read speed during standard playback via the pickup 130 and the playback unit 113. The moving image stream 11 is read out at a speed that is twice to several tens of times faster. The reason why such a process is possible is that the conversion unit 121 to which the moving image stream 11 is transmitted does not have to perform the stream conversion process, so there is no need to wait for the end of the process of the conversion unit 121. With respect to the read moving image stream 11, the conversion unit 121 sends the moving image stream 11 to the output D-IF unit 122 as it is, and the output D-IF unit 122 also transfers it to the DVD recorder 20 as it is. When the transfer ends, the process ends.

  On the other hand, in step S76, the pickup 130 and the reproduction unit 113 read a moving picture stream from the optical disc 131 at a standard speed, and the conversion unit 121 converts the format based on the format information of the DVD recorder 20 that is a transfer destination device. Furthermore, in step S77, the conversion unit 121 changes the U_PK attribute information (U_PK_ID) 52 and the U_PK data (U_PK_data) 53 in the attached information pack (U_PK) 40 in accordance with the format of the converted video stream. Thereafter, in step S78, the output D-IF unit 122 transfers the converted video stream to the DVD recorder 20. Since the DVD recorder 20 can receive the converted video stream and record it on the recording medium 134 as it is, the DVD recorder 20 is not subjected to processing load for conversion, and the hardware resource is used for other processing. Can be used effectively.

  The embodiments of the present invention have been described above. In the above description, a DVD-RAM disk is given as an example of the optical disk 131. However, there are various standards for optical discs, and other than DVD-RAM discs, MO, DVD-R, DVD-RW, + RW, CD-R, CD-RW, and the like may be used. Further, in place of the optical disk 131, a removable recording medium other than the optical disk, for example, a semiconductor memory card can be used, or a hard disk, a semiconductor memory, or the like that is a part of the components of the data processing apparatus 10 can be used. it can.

  In this embodiment, the MP4 file format is taken as an example, and the U_PK attribute information 19 is stored in one box (U_PK Information Box) in a movie box that is a box (BOX) structure. However, the box structure is not an essential requirement of the present invention, and any data structure may be adopted as long as the U_PK attribute information is stored in the management information so that it can be specified.

  In the description of the MP4 file format, the moving image file 12 and the management file 14 are described as being recorded on the optical disc 131 as separate files. However, this is not an essential requirement for the present invention. For example, only the moving image file 12 may be recorded alone. When transferring the moving picture stream described above, the playback control unit 114 may directly read the U_PK attribute information 52 from the attached information pack 50 of the moving picture stream 11 stored as the moving picture file 12 and specify the format of the moving picture stream 11.

  When one of the format information related to the above-described DVD recorder 20 and the attribute information specifying the format of the data stream is fixed, for example, the data processing apparatus 10 only performs processing of one specific format. When it is known in advance that only the device to be enabled is connected, or when the format of the data stream is determined in advance and the attribute information is fixed, the playback control unit will at least one of the attribute information and the format information. Based on the above, it may be determined whether or not to convert the format of the data stream.

  The transfer function of the data processing device is realized based on a computer program that defines the processing procedure shown in FIG. The computer of the data processing apparatus operates each component of the data processing apparatus by executing such a computer program, thereby realizing the above-described processing. The computer program is recorded on a recording medium such as a CD-ROM and distributed on the market, or transmitted through an electric communication line such as the Internet. Thereby, even in a computer system, transfer processing having the same function as that of the above-described data processing device can be realized.

  According to the present invention, when transferring a data stream, it is determined whether or not the data stream is in a format that can be processed by the transfer destination device. If not, convert to a format that can be processed and transfer. When transferring without processing, since there is no restriction on the data stream reading speed, the data stream can be read from the recording medium at high speed and transferred. Since the transfer destination device has only to record the received data stream as it is, the processing load caused by the conversion processing on the device side can be reduced.

(A) is a diagram showing a camcorder 10 and a DVD recorder 20 connected to transfer a data stream. (B) is a figure which shows the relationship of the relative transfer time length about the example of a combination of the data stream A and the data stream B by embodiment of this invention, and each example. It is a figure which shows the structure of the functional block of the data processor 10 by embodiment of this invention. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a data structure of a moving image file 12 and a management file 14 recorded on an optical disc 131. 3 is a diagram illustrating a more detailed data structure of a moving image stream 11. FIG. (A) is a figure which shows the data structure of the attached information pack 40. FIG. (B) is a diagram showing the correspondence between the ID of the attribute information 52 and the contents of the attribute data (U_PK_data) 53 described corresponding to the ID. It is a figure which shows the kind of ID described in the U_PK attribute information box 19, and the kind of U_PK storage data corresponding to the kind. 4 is a flowchart showing a procedure of transfer processing of the data processing apparatus 10.

Claims (10)

A data processing apparatus for transferring a data stream recorded on a recording medium to a connected device, wherein the data stream has attribute information specifying a format of the data stream,
An interface unit that communicates with the device to obtain format information that identifies a format that can be processed by the device;
A reproducing unit for reading out the attribute information and the data stream from the recording medium;
A reproduction control unit for determining whether to convert the format of the data stream based on the attribute information and the format information;
A conversion unit configured to convert and output the format of the data stream into a format specified by the format information based on the determination, or to output without converting the format of the data stream, and the interface unit Is a data processing device that transmits the data stream output from the conversion unit to the device. The data stream is recorded on the recording medium together with management information in which the attribute information is copied,
The data processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the reproduction unit reads the management information and extracts the attribute information. The data processing device according to claim 1, wherein the reproduction unit reads the data stream and extracts the attribute information. The data processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the reproduction unit changes a reading speed of the data stream in accordance with determination of whether to convert the format. 5. The reproduction unit according to claim 4, wherein the playback unit reads the data stream at a first speed when the format conversion is performed, and reads the data stream at a second speed higher than the first speed when the format conversion is not performed. Data processing device. A data processing method for transferring a data stream recorded on a recording medium to a device that is executed in a data processing device and connected to the data processing device, wherein the data stream is attribute information that specifies a format of the data stream Have
Communicating with the device to obtain format information identifying a format that can be processed by the device;
Reading the attribute information and the data stream from the recording medium;
Determining whether to convert the format of the data stream based on the attribute information and the format information;
Based on the determination, the format of the data stream is converted into a format specified by the format information and output, or the format of the data stream is output without conversion and transmitted to the device; ,
Including a data processing method. The data stream is recorded on the recording medium together with management information in which the attribute information is copied,
The data processing method according to claim 6, wherein the reading step reads the management information and extracts the attribute information. The data processing method according to claim 6, wherein in the reading step, the attribute information is extracted by reading the data stream. The data processing method according to claim 6, wherein the reading step changes a reading speed of the data stream in accordance with a determination as to whether to convert the format. The read-out step reads the data stream at a first speed when the format conversion is performed, and reads the data stream at a second speed higher than the first speed when the format conversion is not performed. Data processing method.

Images